Perhaps the best thing for the Buffalo Sabres right now is another game or two. Sitting around and stewing for a few days after Monday's collapse against Tampa Bay will just make the wound fester.
Getting some points Wednesday in Detroit and Thursday night when Stanley Cup champion Colorado comes to KeyBank Center would be the best salve for the bruised feelings. Especially when you review Monday's gameflow, which saw Buffalo blow a two-goal lead in the final 5½ minutes of regulation and suffer a 6-5 overtime loss on a Steven Stamkos goal.
"I think it's a good opportunity for us to keep things going," center Tage Thompson, who scored his 14th goal of the season in 22 games, said after practice Tuesday. "The result isn't what we wanted last game, but I thought we played a good game. They're obviously a really talented team and they're very opportunistic. I thought we honestly outplayed them for the majority of the game, and that's a tough one to swallow. I think if we just keep playing the same way we did last night, we're gonna get wins."
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With the Buffalo Sabres clinging to a one-goal lead, Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov tied the score with 2:02 left in regulation to send the game to overtime, and Steven Stamkos scored the game winner to send the Sabres to a 6-5 loss at KeyBank Center.
"That one stings, but you play 82 games and there's gonna be a lot of stuff that happens in the year," added captain Kyle Okposo. "You've got to let it go and go play. We've got to look at the game and see what we can do better. ... When the game's on the line, I just think we got on our heels a little bit. When you give a team like that just a little bit of space, they're going to take advantage. And that's what they did."
Coach Don Granato was happy with the reaction he got at practice. The atmosphere was still pretty lively without any noticeable down-in-the-dumps feelings.
"You lose a game, disappointment can't linger into today and I thought the skate today was real good," Granato said. "There's every reason to be excited about playing another game. These guys love playing hockey."
Granato said he wants his players to regain their enthusiasm that comes with being the NHL's youngest team.
"We lost somewhere in there the fact that we're still young and should be energized and should be confident that we're an up-and-coming team," he said. "We haven't arrived. And so when you start thinking about expectations, it becomes pressure. And it pulls you out of the fact that you are still young and should be energized and should have every right to play fearless because you're going to gain experience.
"If you back off and play conservative, you are not going to get better. And we're still in an extremely high developmental phase of an organization where we need to get better because the capacity is enormous to get better."
There is a harsh bottom line that fans and players alike agree on: The Sabres are supposed to be better than this. Probably not a playoff team but they're not supposed to be seventh out of eight teams in the Atlantic Division, writes Mike Harrington.
One of the frustrating parts of the game was the number of open looks and in-tight chances Tampa Bay had to get six goals on only 25 shots.
"Something that we we can do a better job at is making it harder on other teams and not give them free opportunities," Thompson said. "I think that's something where we've gotten ourselves in trouble with. We've given up some easy rushes, odd- man rushes against. If we clean up those those freebies for other teams, I think we're going to see a lot more success."
Around the boards
• Casey Mittelstadt continued to skate on his line Tuesday with Victor Olofsson and Rasmus Asplund after they all played less than 10 minutes Monday. Mittelstadt and Olofsson had no shot attempts and Mittelstadt had a 1-10 record on faceoffs, but Granato remains hesitant to make changes largely because Mittelstadt has nine power-play points, tied for second on the team. He has just four at 5-on-5. Peyton Krebs and Vinnie Hinostroza remained extras at practice.
• Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin missed practice Tuesday after taking a Stamkos shot to the right leg late in the third period. The Sabres had no word on Lyubushkin's status as they await further imaging. Jacob Bryson (lower body) is improving and transitioning to day-to-day status while goaltender Eric Comrie (knee) remains week to week.
• Backup goalie Alex Nedeljkovic will start Wednesday for Detroit. He's 2-3-1, 4.01/.880 in seven games. One of them was the 8-3 drubbing he took Oct. 31 in Buffalo, the night Thompson piled up six points. The Sabres are likely to go with Craig Anderson, and then come back with Luukkonen Thursday against Colorado.
